


I Said, I Said

by northofthehouse



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - After College/University, Alternate Universe - Library, Attempt at Humor, But he's totally Kim Heechul, Common Cold, Complicated Relationships, DOES THIS COUNT AS FLUFF, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, Forgive Me, I probably forgot a good tag, I'm not saying Supervisor Kim is Kim Heechul, Librarians, M/M, Mild Language, Minor Byun Baekhyun/Do Kyungsoo | D.O, Misunderstandings, Multi, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Oh Sehun is a Little Shit, Park Chanyeol-centric, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, eh why not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28855254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/northofthehouse/pseuds/northofthehouse
Summary: Jongin and Chanyeol hate each other. Mostly. Well, at least a little bit. But maybe not at all.
Relationships: Kim Jongin | Kai/Park Chanyeol
Comments: 8
Kudos: 58
Collections: Swords and Hearts 2020





	I Said, I Said

**Author's Note:**

  * For [incloudnine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/incloudnine/gifts).



> **For:** incloudnine  
>  **Prompt:** Character A and Character B work in the same place and much to their annoyance, they will always end up having to do things together. Things are slowly getting weird when Character B is not like their usual self and haven't been showing up to work for days. Concerned, Character A decided to pay Character B a visit. Complete with a bag full of snacks, a stack of movie to go on for the rest of the night, self heating blankets and lots and lots of alcoholic drinks to cheer B up.  
>  **Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction and none of the characters are owned by Swords and Hearts. All creative rights and ownership of this particular work of fiction lie with the respective authors.**
> 
> **Author's Note:** I haven't written EXO in a while so I feel like I'm a little out of practice. Still, I love them, and I hope this is at least a little of what you wanted, OP. Enjoy!

"Park! Kim!"

The entire room of interns perk up in their chairs, peeking out over the tops of their cubicles to focus on their boss where he stands in the doorway.

Realizing his mistake, the supervisor, a Kim himself, clears his throat and says instead, "Park Chanyeol and Kim Jongin!"

The two interns in question stand abruptly, studiously avoiding eye contact, and sullenly follow Supervisor Kim into a nearby meeting room.

Forty-five minutes and one new project later, Jongin and Chanyeol have relocated to the coffee cart on the third floor.

"This is your fault," Jongin complains. Chanyeol rolls his eyes and crosses his arms in indignation. His crossed legs are long and brush against Jongin's ankles as Chanyeol reclines in his seat.

"How is this my fault?" Chanyeol snarks back. "It's not like I  _ ask  _ to work with you! I just require excellence from my team members."

In a complete 180 of personality, Jongin nudges at Chanyeol's shin with his foot and smirks. "Is that a compliment, Yeollie? Do you think I'm...excellent?"

He says it like a dirty word. Chanyeol frowns—at the nickname and the implication—and takes a sip of his coffee.

"It's not my fault," he reiterates, ignoring the rest.

"It is," Jongin insists. "Stop being so damn good at everything and maybe they'll stop making us work together."

By the time Jongin realizes he's just said something actually nice about his most-hated coworker, it's too late. Chanyeol has noticed the kind words and is grinning about it.

"You like me," he sing-songs. "You wanna kiss me; you wanna hug me; you want to love–"

Jongin's elbow makes contact with Chanyeol's stomach and Chanyeol's teasing is silenced with a sudden "Oof!" of breathless surprise.

"See!" Chanyeol whines, his voice definitely too loud for a library, "this is why nobody wants to work with you!"

"Everybody wants to work with me!" Jongin yells back, offended. "Nobody wants to work with  _ you _ !"

Kyungsoo, manning the Periodicals Desk and leafing lazily through the newest edition of  _ People _ , deigns to look up from his magazine and says, "You're a menace. Collectively. Go flirt somewhere else."

Chanyeol and Jongin are, understandably, disgusted by this accusation and quickly separate. Jongin takes the elevator two floors up to the Map Room and Chanyeol returns to the Intern Hub, both men sulking at Kyungsoo, at their rotten luck at being forced to collaborate on a project  _ again _ , and, as usual, at each other.

"They should hook up," Baekhyun later comments to Kyungsoo as they wait for the bus together at the end of the day.

"No."

"We should hook them up!" Baekhyun says then, apparently extremely enthusiastic about the chance to actively meddle in the lives of his friends.

"No."

"We should–"

This time, Kyungsoo doesn't even let his boyfriend finish. "No. Whatever it is, if it involves being in the same room as those two, I'm out."

"Aw," Baekhyun pouts, "babe! It could be fun! Just think: double dates!"

Kyungsoo pauses, thinks about it, and full body shudders. "No." He sticks his arm out to flag down the bus as it comes around the corner and Baekhyun takes a moment to consider what getting Chanyeol and Jongin together would actually be like.

Once they're boarded, he turns to his boyfriend, grimacing. "You're right, babe," Baekhyun admits, "those two together would be too much."

"You're too much," Kyungsoo mumbles, but he's blushing and his thumb is tracing warm circles on Baekhyun's knee, so Baekhyun just coos at him and moves on, chattering happily.

On the other side of the city, sitting shoulder to shoulder on the train, Jongin and Chanyeol continue trying to pretend the other doesn't exist. Jongin wonders what he did to make Chanyeol hate him so much, while Chanyeol grumbles to himself that life would be a lot easier if Jongin tried being nicer.

"He's really not so bad," they both think, their arms brushing as the train rocks back and forth. Then, with a sigh, "It's too bad we'll never be more than this."

Fast forward six months. Jongin and Chanyeol are paired on three more collaborative projects; they even win a district award for their work promoting young adult fiction books to the elderly.

"You two create magic together," Supervisor Kim tells them when he calls them both into his office to offer them a job. It's not professional in the slightest, but Supervisor Kim has always been a little alternative, and when Jongin points out that conversations about continued employment should probably happen on an individual basis, Supervisor Kim laughs at him.

"I don't want one of you," he counters to Jongin and Chanyeol's shock. "I want both or nothing. I know you two have your issues, but if you want to keep your jobs, you'll figure it out."

He doesn't say  _ or else _ , but it's heavily implied.

"You can't–!" Chanyeol starts to argue, rising from his seat as Supervisor Kim smirks at him from across the desk. He's stopped by Jongin's hand on his arm, calming him enough for them to begrudgingly accept, bow politely, and leave without further incident.

"He can't do that to us!" Chanyeol reiterates once they're alone in the hallway.

Jongin shrugs. He's not pleased, but it is what it is. "He can do what he wants," Jongin reminds Chanyeol.

"It's not fair," Chanyeol pouts.

"Life is hard and then you die," Jongin says drily. "My dad's favorite saying coming back to bite me in the ass."

Chanyeol huffs out a laugh, amused but still mostly frustrated.

"If it helps," Jongin offers tentatively, "you do good work. I suppose there are worse people I could be stuck working with."

"My friends call you my work wife," Chanyeol informs him, unimpressed by Jongin's attempt at friendship. "You don't even like me and I see you more than my roommates. People I literally live with."

Jongin's face shudders closed. "If this was a me problem," he says, "we would have resolved our differences a long time ago." As he speaks, he turns abruptly and walks away. He leaves Chanyeol standing alone in the hallway, wondering what just happened.

Over the course of the weekend, Chanyeol puts the incident with Jongin out of his mind. They've lived and worked in each other's orbits since college; Chanyeol thought once that they could have been good friends, but that clearly hasn't happened. Jongin's gotten over his and Chanyeol's shit before; there's no reason to believe he won't again.

Except Monday rolls around and Jongin doesn't come in to work.

Tuesday, no Jongin.

Wednesday, no Jongin.

On Thursday, when Jongin is absent yet again, Chanyeol is desperate enough to send a needy text to his and Jongin's university senior and mutual friend, Minseok.

It's a dead end. Minseok tells Chanyeol he hasn't heard anything from Jongin recently, but also that it'd be fun to get together sometime.

"I hope you two work it out!" he texts, cutely, with added emojis and perfect grammar. Honestly, it's no wonder half the library and information science students were in love with him back in the day.

Chanyeol wasn't, of course, because he was too busy pining after...well, it never happened, so never mind.

Jongin doesn't come on Friday. Chanyeol stops by Supervisor Kim's office with three hours left in the workday and says, "I'm going home, Boss."

Supervisor Kim just raises an eyebrow. Chanyeol doesn't stick around for a response.

Before going to Jongin's, Chanyeol stops by the supermarket for emergency supplies. He walks the aisles, grabbing whatever strikes his fancy, but specifically looking for things he knows that Jongin likes. He always has paid a little bit too much attention to Jongin, after all.

After he's paid and lugged the bags of snacks and drinks back to his car, Chanyeol pulls out his phone to Google popular chicken places in the neighborhood. There's a surprisingly large number of options and Chanyeol's not sure which to choose. Unwilling to order the wrong thing from the wrong place, Chanyeol dials the number to call his secret weapon: Oh Sehun.

"Make it quick, Park," Sehun says without greeting.

"I need a recommendation for a chicken place."

Sehun is so suspicious of Chanyeol's motives that even his silence is questioning. "Why should I help you?" Sehun asks, ever loyal.

"He's sad and it's my fault," Chanyeol admits. Then, sadly to himself, "It's always my fault."

"You're damn right it is," Sehun agrees heartily. "Nini has been in love with you for years, you giant idiot. If you insist on being such an ass, at least leave him alone long enough for him to move on!"

Well then. That's...a lot. Chanyeol doesn't think he has the bandwidth to process that right now.

"Look, man," he says, "I'm just trying to order chicken that he won't hate."

"It's Jongin," Sehun snarks like that's answer enough. And it is.

Chanyeol hangs up without saying goodbye. He knows he'll catch hell from Sehun for it later, but he's just had A Major Realization and he doesn't have time for Sehun's dramatics.

It takes a lot of effort to have a nemesis. You have to pay attention to their likes and dislikes, notice where they like to go and what they like to do. You have to know their friends and care about their interests. Actually, now that Chanyeol thinks about it, having a nemesis isn't that different from having a lover.

Except, with a nemesis, you're a lot less likely to end fights with make-up sex.

Anyway, the point is, Chanyeol  _ knows _ Jongin. He doesn't need Sehun to tell him what Jongin likes because Chanyeol already knows.

He calls the nearest delivery place as he drives back to his apartment and orders the chicken sent to Jongin's place. At the very least Jongin will have something yummy to eat, even if he ends up kicking Chanyeol out. Although, if what Sehun said was even a little bit true, perhaps Jongin's a lot more willing to put up with Chanyeol's company than Chanyeol even realized.

Chanyeol runs up the three flights to his apartment, dropping the groceries on the floor by the door and rushing to find the last few things he needs. Then, finally, Chanyeol is ready.

He catches his breath as he takes the stairs down to the ground floor, walks across the courtyard, and rides the elevator up the seven floors to Jongin's apartment. He always thought it was kind of crazy that they both ended up living in the same apartment complex, though in different buildings. A lot of things about the two of them were coincidental like that, almost like the universe was pulling all its strings to get them together and keep them that way.

Chanyeol's adrenaline runs out right as he exits the elevator and steps up to Jongin's front door. He's not sure what kind of welcome he'll receive, if any. What if Jongin's moved? What if Jongin doesn't want to see him? What if Sehun's wrong?

A voice in the back of Chanyeol's head that, suspiciously, sounds a lot like Sehun says imperiously, "I'm never wrong."

"Of course you're not," Chanyeol soothes, under his breath. Then, he knocks.

Jongin, when he opens the door, looks rumpled and confused. His hair is fluffy like he just woke up and he has a blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a cape. He is, Chanyeol thinks, the best thing Chanyeol's ever seen.

"I'm sorry," Chanyeol blurts out, unable to keep it in a second longer.

Jongin's expression twists in confusion. "Chanyeol? What? You're sorry?" His voice is rough and he's sniffling, and Chanyeol is beginning to think that Jongin's prolonged absence from work might not have had anything to do with him.

"You're sick?" Chanyeol asks, bewildered. "I thought you just didn't want to see me."

Jongin rolls his eyes hard enough that he starts coughing. He really does look pretty sick; Chanyeol wonders who's been taking care of him. "I didn't skip work for a week because you hurt my feelings, Chanyeol. I already knew you didn't like me; it's why we've never gotten along. I just have a bad cold."

Chanyeol, still hovering awkwardly in the hallway right outside Jongin's door, looks affronted. "We never got along because I like you too much and you've never liked me!" Then, in a smaller voice, "I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings."

Apparently, Chanyeol's confession has rendered Jongin speechless. Well, at least briefly.

"You like me too much?" Jongin cries. "I like you too much!"

A voice from next door yells through the door: "I hate both of you! Shut up already!"

Sheepishly, Jongin beckons Chanyeol silently into his apartment, closing the door behind him.

They both pretend they weren't just yelling out romantic confessions in the hallway and Jongin makes small sounds of delight as Chanyeol instead shows his nemesis-turned-something-more? all the goodies he brought.

"I ordered chicken too," Chanyeol adds. "Since I brought some movies to watch and I wasn't sure if you'd be hungry or not." He rubs a hand across the back of his neck and looks at the floor shyly. "The food's delivery, and I already paid for it, so you can kick me out, if you want. But...I'd like to stay, if that's okay."

Jongin, still wrapped up and sniffling but now also smiling sweetly at Chanyeol, says softly, "I'd like that. I want to try, with you, if you'll let me."

Chanyeol looks up, meeting Jongin's eye and grinning. "We are pretty good together," he jokes, speaking quietly to match Jongin's tone but clearly happy. "What was it that Supervisor Kim said? Something like magic?"


End file.
